The present invention is directed to the total containment welding of plastic tubes. Various prior art exists disclosing different approaches for welding plastic tubes together. Prior patents disclose processes where the weld connection depends on the melt rheology of plastic resulting in non-uniform size of the weld connection. No attempt was made in the prior art to gain control of the size of the weld connection.
Parent application Ser. No. 158,505 discloses various wafer constructions for use in the total containment welding of plastic tubes and in the selective connect and disconnect of the plastic tubes. Such wafers are sufficiently effective that the same wafer could be used multiple times by removing the plastic material accumulated on the wafer after each use. In certain applications, however, it is desired to prevent the multiple use of the wafer and to assure that the wafer will be used only once.